The Gigantic Floating Roc

by Angel Chew

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Very soon you will be launched into a story of a boy, a talking mynah, a boat called the Dream, and a gigantic floating roc, all adrift at sea. But now, let us have a quick run-through about why—and how—he got there.

The boy was a sailor—which explains the boat and the out at sea bit—and he had undertaken this journey because he wanted to go see the Bermuda Triangle, and maybe figure it out. (The boy was a bit of a genius.) However, though a good sailor, he wasn’t as experienced as he thought, and even with the mechanical mainsheet and autopilot, he was driven off course by rather strong winds. And no, we are not living in the dark ages—after all, it is 2057. For the last 24 hours, he had been on the boat, awake and buffeted by strong winds, pelted at by rains that felt like stones hitting your body, and getting startled out of his wits by brilliant flashes of lightning and claps of thunder that sounded like someone was beating a deafening drum right next to your ears. He had been praying, for he had been afraid that he would capsize (though such boats are virtually uncapsizable). Currently, he is somewhere off the coast of Cuba. This being said, shall we join him?

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The boy is asleep. The kind of sleep that a person sleeps when he hasn’t gotten any sleep for the last 24 hours. (After the storm, he had murmured a single “Hallelujah,” and fallen deeply asleep.) Basically, the boy is dead to the world. Strangely, he has a dream, and the dream goes like this.

The boy lies in his boat, asleep. He wakes up and sees a bird perched on the side of the boat. His brain processes it as a mynah. “Hello,” caws the mynah. “You just might be going to crash into a gigantic floating roc.” The boy doesn’t register this, as he is too busy staring at the mynah. How on earth could it talk? Suddenly, there is a crunch, and the boat judders to a halt. The boy’s head whips around, his eyes widen, and his head whips back to the bird. The boat had crashed into a gigantic floating roc. “How—” he starts.

The boy sits bolt upright and his eyes flash around. He has, in fact, gotten lodged onto a gigantic floating roc, and his boat is no longer moving. There are also strange rod-like things attached to the soft feathery roc. He checks his radar for the roc, as his sonar is connected to the auto-pilot device that controls his tiller. Hang on. Is the rock… feathery? How can a rock be feathery? Strange, he thinks. And it isn’t shown on the sonar. He looks back at the roc. Then realises there is a bird perched on the side of the boat. The same bird as the one from his dream. “I see that you are awake,” croaks the bird. “Curiouser and curiouser!” The boy gasps.

“Well, stop standing there and do something!”

“B-b-but–”

“But what, boy?”

“But you’re talking!”

“Of course I’m talking, boy! How else could I help you? Besides, you have already seen me talk, haven’t you?”

“But that was a dream…”

“Dreams are more real than you think, boy. Besides, what would you expect from a boat named the Dream? Now. Go check out the gigantic roc, please. We have to figure out how to get back to shore…”

The boy, still surprised, obeys the mynah and goes to the bow to check out the rock. What he finds there, however, is so incredible that he sits down. The boat is stuck in the rock! It is as if the rock is of a softer material than the boat. The boy sits there, unable to take it all in.

“Boy?” The mynah’s harsh voice jolts him out of his reverie. “What are you doing?” “The boat… the boat is stuck in the rock!” he calls back. “My mother is going to kill me when I get back,” he mutters. “I promised her I wouldn’t get into any accidents…” He sighs and stands to walk back to the mynah.

“What took you so long?” The mynah glares at him. “What you need to do is get a long pole–– your boat hook will do––and push off. Then the boat will come apart from the roc and you can sail off.”

“Oh?” The boy raises his eyebrows. “Who knew it would be that easy? Now, we only need a boat hook…”

“Yes, yes. Go get your boat hook. Wait. You don’t have a boat hook?” “No, I don’t.” The mynah looks at him with exasperation. “Are you sure that you don’t have a boat hook?” “I don’t!” “Then how do you dock?” “I lost it in the storm!” The boy wails. “Oh dear…” They sit there for a few hours, without ideas. Somewhere, the boy sends a quick prayer to God. All of a sudden, the boy stands up. “I have an idea!” He cries. “I can use my feet!”

The mynah laughs. “Why didn’t we think of that before! Quick, go and push off before it gets any later!”

The boy moves as fast as is safe to the bow and pushes off with his feet and gasps in realisation. “Ooh! It’s soft and fluffy! The mynah was saying roc, not rock, the whole time! Done! Time to head home!” He goes to pilot the Dream away from the rock and towards home. It takes him about two days to get home. The journey home is uneventful, with the mynah and the boy sharing food and taking turns to keep watch. When they reach the dock, they anchor the boat and unload, then take a cab home. The boy unlocks the door, and calls out to his mother, “Hi mum! I’m home!” His mother walks out from the kitchen. “Hello and welcome back, dear! Did you find out about the Bermuda Triangle?”

“No,” he replies. “But I did find a talking bird…”

Yet when they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, the Lord brought them out of their distress. He calmed the storm and its waves quieted down.

Psalm 107:28-29

Dear reader, such things like my story are improbable and are purely fiction, but we can listen to them in stories. Take faith from stories, for nothing is impossible. The boy, however, trusted in God, and God saved him from the storm. Have faith, dear readers, have faith in God.